Driver In Fatal Crash Arraigned And Held (Illegal alien kills CT correction officer)

The Hartford Courant ^ | April 21, 2006 | Monica Polanco, Courant Staff Writer

[nutmeg]

ENFIELD -- A Hartford man involved in a fatal collision with a motorcyclist who worked as a correction officer was arraigned in Superior Court in Enfield Thursday and held as an undocumented worker.

Luis Perez-Lopez, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, has been charged with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, two counts of making an improper turn or stop, driving with articles obstructing his view, operating or towing an unregistered motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle without a license and failure to insure a private motor vehicle.

Perez-Lopez was arrested Thursday after he collided with a motorcyclist in Suffield just before 7 a.m.

Gary Thureson, a 47-year-old correction officer, was riding his motorcycle west on Mountain Road near Hill Street when he was struck by the car Perez-Lopez was driving, police said.

Perez-Lopez was driving east on Mountain Road and made a left turn in front of Thureson, striking his motorcycle and trapping him under the car. A Suffield police officer and several good Samaritans lifted the car off Thureson.

He was flown to Hartford Hospital, where he died.

In court, Judge Howard Scheinblum set Perez-Lopez's cash surety bond at $50,000, denying a request by Perez-Lopez's public defender for a 10 percent cash alternative. Scheinblum ordered that Perez-Lopez not be held at the McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, where Thureson worked.

"Given the fact that he's an illegal alien, given the fact that he was driving a car that had no insurance ...that he has no valid Connecticut license, that there's a death - these are the facts that concern me," he said.

"There is an immigration detainer, so bond is essentially academic," Bail Commissioner Paul Maselek told Scheinblum.

A man who attended Perez-Lopez's arraignment, along with Perez-Lopez's brother and girlfriend, declined to comment.

Thureson celebrated his 16th anniversary with the state Department of Correction the day he died, said Stacy Smith, a spokeswoman for the department. He was assigned to the McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield and had formerly worked at Hartford Correctional Center.

*snip*

[nutmeg]

Connecticut ping!

Excerpt:

A Hartford man involved in a fatal collision with a motorcyclist who worked as a correction officer was arraigned in Superior Court in Enfield Thursday and held as an undocumented worker.

Luis Perez-Lopez, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, has been charged with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, two counts of making an improper turn or stop, driving with articles obstructing his view, operating or towing an unregistered motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle without a license and failure to insure a private motor vehicle....

Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.

[nutmeg]

Connecticut ping!

Excerpt:

A Hartford man involved in a fatal collision with a motorcyclist who worked as a correction officer was arraigned in Superior Court in Enfield Thursday and held as an undocumented worker.

Luis Perez-Lopez, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, has been charged with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, two counts of making an improper turn or stop, driving with articles obstructing his view, operating or towing an unregistered motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle without a license and failure to insure a private motor vehicle....

Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.

[nutmeg]

Excerpt:

A Hartford (Connecticut) man involved in a fatal collision with a motorcyclist who worked as a correction officer was arraigned in Superior Court in Enfield Thursday and held as an undocumented worker.

Luis Perez-Lopez, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, has been charged with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, two counts of making an improper turn or stop, driving with articles obstructing his view, operating or towing an unregistered motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle without a license and failure to insure a private motor vehicle....

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[kinoxi]

just committing the vehicular homicides that the Americans won't do

[Zeppo]

Remember how both the Connecticut state and local government authorities made a big stink following the deadly crash of the dump truck at the base of Avon mountain, responding with calls for tougher enforcement and crackdowns on various illegalities, as well as proposals for intrusive government surveillance via roadway cameras that would chill even law-abiding citizens? So I'm certain that this "accident" will also serve as a wakeup call and will generate the same kind of government crackdown on aliens who are illegally residing and/or driving in the state.

Uh, yeah, right. The esteemed mayor of New Haven is working overtime to grant special privileges to illegal aliens. Fat chance that this Democrat-infested state is going to do anything about it...

[Jim_Curtis]

Luis Perez-Lopez, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, has been charged

I wonder if this is one of those papers that usually drops the illegal from illegal immigrant. Media can't get away with dropping the illegal in this story which kind of shows the weak foundation of their pc word games.

[VeniVidiVici]

"Given the fact that he's an illegal alien, given the fact that he was driving a car that had no insurance ...that he has no valid Connecticut license, that there's a death - these are the facts that concern me," he said.

Hmm. This here judge seems to be quite the Master of the Obvious.

[knarf]

Even socialists get burned. The Northeast is full of illegals .. working all sorts of jobs .. but this is a 16 yr CO .. a member of the LEO family .. one of their own .. and the family will demand, not only justice, but a change.

[Poincare]

Connecticut gets a little taste of a daily occurence in California. It's awful.

[Jeff Chandler]

Drunk driving is an hispanic tradition.

[Celtic Conservative]

"Drunk driving is an hispanic tradition."

Last I checked , us anglos were pretty d*mn good at it , too.

Btw, 12 year C/O, rest in peace brother officer.

CC

[raybbr]

We had a guy pulled over from where I work in North Haven. He had no DL, no insurance and the registration was in another name. The cop gave him a ticket and let him go. He hasn't killed anyone yet. He is also know to be a drug dealer where I work.

He lost his job a couple of weeks ago because he left to go back to Peru for a vacation and stayed for three weeks. He only had two weeks vacation. He is now applying for unemployment.

CT politicians don't care what happens to this state. There is too much money to be leeched out of the wealthy here for them to bother with the minutiae of life.

I want to leave but my wife doesn't. If our taxes continue to go up the way they have been the last five years we'll have to leave just on principle.

[RaceBannon]

I bought Abner's FLAG CAR, and last August, some hispanic males hit me from behind and drove off.

I got the license, the number embedded itself in my vinyl bumper and I also was on the phone to 911 when they took off, and the address was checked, and it turns out it was a phony address, too.

[raybbr]

What do you want to bet that the two dem candidates for governor, both of whom want to cater to illegals, will get almost 50% of the vote here in CT.

[politeia]

Uh, yeah, right. The esteemed mayor of New Haven is working overtime to grant special privileges to illegal aliens. Fat chance that this Democrat-infested state is going to do anything about it...

Even though I detest the American penchant for frivolous litigation I think that legislators and mayors and others who assist illegal aliens to stay in this country in direct opposition to our democratically enacted laws should be held legally responsible for the consequences.

For example remember Lee Malvo, the Washington DC sniper who was an illegal immigrant who was caught and released by federal immigration authorities rather than being deported? This was done in conformance with the Bush administration's non-enforcement of our immigration laws policy -- and the result was 10 citizens murdered and an entire region held hostage and the nation terrorized for several days.

To express our outrage at political elites who refuse to protect us while using our tax money to create safe workplaces and personal bodyguards for themselves, I would really like to see class action law suits by crime victims of illegal immigrants against elected officials. Even if only to bring attention to the problem and to hold elected officials accountable for their decisions -- and it is their decision -- to not enforce our democratically enacted laws.

I really don't think there is any hope of any federal official (elected or otherwise) being held accountable by a court but it sure would create a PR nightmare for them defending the indefensible. Until we put our elected officials on notice that we hold them accountable for all the consequences of their failure to enforce our laws nothing will change.

Hey why stop there? Perhaps we should sue federal elected officials for the economic damage in lost wages due to the illegal immigrant labor competition and for the excess property taxes paid by Americans for educating a substantial proportion of the children of Mexican nationals (and I think we would be astounded at the degree to which Mexico is transferring the burden of educating its children to American taxpayers). There is no end to this type of lawsuit once it begins. Lawsuits seem to be given more deference by our political elites than our laws and the outrage of the overwhelming majority of Americans.

[Bigg Red]

...the family will demand, not only justice, but a change.

**
I sure hope they get both!

[hershey]

Oh, come on. Tell Perez-Lopez to show up in court at a later date and let him go. What's the problem?

[knarf]

Me too.
The recent ICE busts indicate congress has been taken to the woodshed ... let's hope we can get our nation back in control.

[kcvl]

Hispanic male, DOB 2-8-71 (additional DOB 1-11-71), 5 foot 7 inches, 135 pounds, black hair, brown eyes. Perez has been known to use the alias of Luis Gerardo Perez-Lopez. If you have information on Perez contact the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 1-800 KS CRIME (1-800-572-7463).


http://tinyurl.com/l64r8